Luton Town signed James Bree from Aston Villa on a permanent transfer in 2020. The defender spent a season on loan at Luton, following Villa’s promotion into the English Premier League in 2019. The 23-year old has been a regular member of Luton Town’s lineup and has shown some significant improvements in his statistics.
James Bree has played every match for Luton Town this season. The right-back has provided three assists and created an expected assist rate of 2.60. Bree has attempted 15 shots with a shot accuracy rate of 20%, but he is yet to open his goal-scoring account. He has made 146 recoveries and averages 8.58 recoveries per match. 57 out of the 146 recoveries have been made inside the opposition’s half. Bree also averages more than four interceptions per match and has made 73 interceptions so far this season.
When looking at the above chart, the general rule is that the longer the bar, the better the performance – you can see the league average in the middle and the % is the percentile rank the player is in. The chart represents the data of James Bree in comparison to the other defenders in the league.
The 23-year-old is one of the league’s highest assists providers and has a high expected assist rate in comparison to the other defenders. However, Bree ranks low when we look at the passes per 90 and the pass accuracy rate. The defender averages 4.12 passes into the opposition’s final third per 90, and his accuracy rate is 63.64%. He makes 0.75 progressive runs per 90, and his shot assists rate per 90 is 1.07.
The above viz is Bree’s passing and progression chart from last season. His expected assist rate per 90 was 0.18, and he had attempted more passes last season. His crosses per 90 rate has increased but is lacking behind in attempting forward passes and through passes this season. The expected assist rate of Bree last season was 3.40 and had a better average per 90.
Bree averages 26.95 passes per 90 with a pass accuracy rate of 73.02. The right-back has attempted four smart passes and three through passes. He has also attempted 54 long passes and averages three long passes per match. Bree’s wide range of passes also includes 54 crosses, with 10 of his passes landing in the opposition’s 6-yard box. A lot of his passes have also landed in the opposition’s 18-yard box.
Bree has attempted the most number of passes towards centre-back Tom Lockyer. His 57 passes towards Lockyer created an expected threat rate of 0.710. Bree has provided two assists to Elijah Adebayo, and the threat rate created was 1.625. The second-highest threat rate is created from passes towards Harry Cornick.
James Bree has shown some improvement while going forward and has proven to be one of the most attacking full-backs in the EFL Championship. The player has made more goal contributions than last year and has benefitted a lot from regular game time, and will look to contribute more towards scoring goals.
